Elletra couldn’t breathe. She stared at his desperate eyes, her tongue seeming to forget how to speak.

Her thoughts were on a speeding train just about to derail. The one man that she had found again. The one that she actually wanted. And he had created the one thing that she hated as much as the Earl. That meant he caused the Sleeper Epidemic. The one that killed her friends. The one that would be guilty of so many other lives if the bombs were used.

She took in a shaky breath, retracting her hand without thinking. She could see his crestfallen expression as he stared at her.

“You’re not-” His voice cracked but he went on, “You’re not going to slit my throat where I stand?”

Elletra would’ve smiled if it had been under different circumstances. But this wasn’t funny. If it had been anybody else, she would’ve done exactly that without a second thought. But revenge wasn’t as simple this time. It was twisted and impossible. But one thing was clear.

Some good writing here – I have to confess that, lazily, I haven’t gone all the way back to the beginning and read the whole series, so I’m looking at this out of context – but I’m suitably engaged. This works, I think, as a standalone.

I too haven’t read back so I am taking this at its one off face value. Could well be a good opener (prologue) so that the reader has immediate hooks thrown at them and then you could tell the story leading to this point.
I am a bit confused about a Sleeper epidemic as I wonder if it is a virus which is spread by a bomb. My bio-warfare knowledge is a bit scant to know whether an epidemic and a virus are exactly the same thing..I presume the virus is the thing and the epidemic is what the thing does.The second paragraph just needs tidying up a bit to read a little better that’s all I am probably getting at.
The scene does clearly give you the sexual tension between the woman and the man and also throws in an ‘Earl’ for good measure so we know another villain is in the mix.
I’d read on from here to see what is going to happen,and I love a strong lead female character to engage with.

@Writearound Thanks for the critique. :) Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but make some of the paragraphs a little clunky because of the character limit. As for the sleeper epidemic, that is tie-in from earlier in the series.